While there are many factors that lead to a business’s success, one of the most important factors is how customers perceive your brand. No business has complete control over how they are perceived, nor should that be the goal. However, your business should have a voice in sharing how you help solve your customers' problems. This is where video production comes in.

Everyone understands the basic formula of advertising: Advertisement + Visibility = Attraction. Seems easy enough, right? Not so fast. 

In today’s world of advertising, it’s not so much what you say but how, when, and to whom you say it. One of the ways marketers and advertisers focus on this narrow approach to clientele and retention is through geotargeting. 

In today’s world smartphones have made it easier than ever to check your email. At any point throughout the day, you probably receive at least five emails from businesses marketing to you. How many of you just delete the emails unless the subject line captures your attention enough to open them? The answer is probably a lot of you. This is why email subject lines are so important. 

Picture this: You’re interviewing Mr. Bean about his coffee roasting company and he begins to wax poetic about the process of harvesting and roasting coffee beans. While his description is helpful enough, the imagery just isn’t sinking into your imagination.

Your domain, or website address, is the face of your business online. It is how people find your business, contact your business and learn more about the services/products you offer. Most business owners would probably not know who actually owns their domain name.

Are you the type that thinks first impressions are overrated? Well, it may be time to change your opinion. Did you know? Recent studies have shown that human beings make a decision to trust someone within 100 milliseconds of seeing their face.

Did you get your hat? Check. What about your bag? Check. Tickets? Oh, no.

A good checklist could be the difference between arriving at your flight on time or missing out on a relaxing vacation. Well, marketing is no different. That’s why we’ve outlined a checklist to keep in mind while developing your next digital advertising strategy.

What’s SEO? Does it matter? Well, yeah. Yeah, it does. We’ve written about it before. 

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In layman’s terms, SEO optimization is the means of improving your site’s visibility when people search for products or services related to your business. The higher your visibility in search results, the more likely customers will be to interact, invest time, and purchase from your company. 

We’ve noted our favorite SEO tools you should be using in your marketing strategy in 2022.

Making good videos is hard. Out of the billions of marketing videos produced, only a fraction ever convey the right message. It doesn’t have to be that way. Careful planning will help you increase your chances of producing a great video.

When you think of planning, the default is to think of the script. Many people miss the storyboard. 

We live in the age of “the brand.” Companies have brands. People have brands––you have a brand. From an initial handshake to an online presence, branding is as important today as ever before. But, how does someone get their brand from themselves to being accepted out there?

Consumers are spending more and more time online. According to a 2021 survey from Pew Research Center, 85% of American adults go online daily, with 31% saying that they are online almost constantly – that's up from 21% in 2015.

In the world of video production, an important element is helping individuals to tell their stories on camera.  

Filmed interviews are used to convey information and experiences directly to the camera. 

There are a few tips that stand out in my mind from my experience in interviewing a wide array of people through the years. 

Recruitment marketing is a way for organizations to locate, attract, engage, and eventually nurture inbound talent. Covid-19 has thrown the job market into turmoil, but with a few helpful tips and trackable initiatives, companies will easily be able to engage with potential candidates and leverage the fundamentals of inbound marketing!

What makes a great video? Well, a great production right?! Yes, that’s a big part of it, however, lots of things go into making a video great. A great video usually starts with intentional pre-production or planning. Then, a clear and focused production based on the planning that came before. Finally, a series of decision-making through cutting up and rearranging, or editing the content that was captured into the final video. This is called post-production. I know, it sounds like a lot, and it can be, but whether your video’s message is simple or complex, learning and applying the steps necessary to make a great video will guarantee an impact on your audience.

As digital marketing strategies evolve a question that often comes up is whether or not email marketing is important. In short, the answer is yes. Why is email marketing important for a brand though? Email marketing provides a brand the opportunity to reach its audience, gives metrics to study, it’s affordable, and it offers the ability to increase brand awareness.

Gone are the days where our only exposure to video advertisements is through television. 

I think most would agree that we now live in a time where it is perfectly normal for people to encounter at least one video ad on their mobile device every single day. 

This massive shift is largely due to the ever-growing amount of people using social media across the world.

There are many options when choosing a platform to build your website. WordPress, by far, is the most popular. Its versatility and ease of use has separated it from other more traditional platforms and coding methods. Along with opening up opportunities for everyday business owners and individuals to build their website, WordPress has many third-party developers creating plugins which, as an easy way to describe it, are apps that work inside of WordPress just as apps work inside your phone or computer. Plugins, just like apps,  are there to enhance the overall experience and help in creating and bringing your vision to life. Some may be more trivial than others, but some are essential and should not be overlooked. There are 3 plugins that I always install when creating a WordPress site, Jetpack, Updraft Plus, and Yoast SEO.

Anything worth doing - building a house, raising a family, starting a business - is worth planning. Imagine hiring a foreman to construct the building you hope to live, sleep, and host dinner parties in, only to learn he intends to “wing it.” Picture starting a business without the slightest notion of what you might sell or who you might sell to. Planning is essential to all things in a good life, including marketing. And today, you have taken the first step to build a strong marketing plan, by reading this article.

The rise of video production in marketing comes as no surprise.  

And while video production technology and other ways to market a product have advanced, so has the mind of the consumer. Today’s consumer doesn’t want to just be told why they should buy a product or service - they want more. They want something new. And what is new in video marketing, is in fact one of the oldest forms of communication on earth: Storytelling.

Living in a digital age, we have access to a wealth of information at our fingertips to help guide us like never before. Consider blogs, for example. Hubspot defines a blog post as an article, news piece, or guide published in the blog section of a website.

Longtime video producer, Liza G. Heiskell, has been officially promoted to the role of Creative Director for InnerAction Media (IAM) and its affiliates. The position is the first of its kind for the Morgantown-based company. 

Social media is evolving at a rapid rate.

With more and more social networks emerging, you may find yourself trying to discern which platforms your business should be on. But wait! Before you create your company's TikTok account, keep in mind that the approach to social media is not one-size-fits-all. There are many options out there, and you don't have to use them all. Instead, it would be best to research what social media platforms best fit your business and target audience. However, to simplify the process, we have narrowed them down to the top three social media platforms to consider for your business. Keep reading to learn more. 

Creating a website can be a stressful and daunting undertaking. What do I put on it? How do I get started? What do I need to know? How do I do it? Well, let's see if we can answer some of those questions for you and get you started on creating a website that has all the content and information your website and your potential clients need from your business. We have five suggested groups of information that will help you develop your site. Read on to learn more. 

Hooray! You are writing your first blog post! Blogging is an integral part of any successful marketing strategy. For instance, statistics show that companies with blogs produce an average of 67 percent more monthly leads than companies that don’t. 

But as your initial excitement wears off, you might find yourself stressing a little. You want to make an excellent impression, but you have no idea where to begin. No need to worry! As a Content Developer here at InnerAction Media, I write blog posts weekly for our clients covering topics about travel to mental health to orthopedics, countertops and much more. So take a deep breath and keep reading to learn some quick Blogging 101.

A four-minute mile is the completion of a mile run in four minutes or less. 

This incredible athletic feat was first achieved on May 6th, 1954, (of course, we marked that anniversary this month) by British Athlete Roger Bannister, at age 25. His official time was 3:59.4. at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track in England.

When planning for a Facebook giveaway, you must have all your ducks in a row so that it will run as smoothly as possible. But even when everything is planned, you must expect the unexpected. 

What Are Motion Graphics? 

Motion graphics are elements such as text or a graphic design added to a video in post-production. They have various uses but are typically used to provide the audience with specific information in a visually exciting way.  

Right now, let’s face it - it's a tough time for every business, but especially restaurants and bars. Owners face different rules, regulations and laws seemingly every day due to the pandemic. It’s hard to be sure what you can or cannot do. 

So you've done it. You have a brand-spankin' new WordPress website and you're ready to take over the world. But wait a minute, how are people going to find your business? Will your website be anything more than "you have to have one because you have to have one" tool? Well, we're here to help. Here are some WordPress tools and plugins to help you market your new site and gain customers by using and optimizing searches and ads.

First United Bank & Trust is a valued client at InnerAction Media. Two years ago, we created a recruitment campaign for them that included video and social media. According to First United’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Chuck Olsson, IAM’s work on the campaign was a great success. 

For a small business owner or entrepreneur, marketing can be tough. Where do you start? What is worth spending your limited time pursuing? How can you get the best value out of your time and resources? Here are a few helpful marketing resources for busy business owners:

If your business is preparing an advertising campaign, you want to give yourself every chance possible for it to be a success. You could develop the most eye-catching or humorous ad campaign possible, but if the right audience doesn't see it, it won't lead to sales. That is why it is essential to find the best advertising strategy possible to reach your business's target audience.

As many individuals are staying home, domestic violence and mental health cases increase. Karen Haring, the founder of Libera, a women and teen empowerment initiative, knows that this is true. Haring spoke on Positively West Virginia podcast about helping women and teens find freedom in their lives. 

Haring graduated from Ohio State University with an education degree and has taught in Ohio and West Virginia public and private schools. She's served as a volunteer, board member, and staff member with nonprofits since college. 

She has 34 years of experience working with women and teens in both group and mentoring settings and is an expert at listening and helping them identify the lies and barriers in their lives. She's passionate about helping women and teens tell their stories to listening ears so they can find their purpose, their voice, and their freedom.

Medical professionals are doing their best to helicopter sick patients affected by COVID-19. Clinton Burley, president and chief executive officer of HealthNet Aeromedical Services, is highly involved in the emergency medical services. 

Through the decades, Burley served as a field paramedic, flight paramedic, EMS educator, public relations officer and flight program manager. HealthNet Aeromedical Services is the nation's third-largest not-for-profit critical care transport program. 

West Virginia University (WVU) is undergoing a vast transition from in-person to virtual classes and more. COVID-19 instills change and there are many moving pieces and personnel to help make this transition run smoothly. 

David Alvarez, Vice-Chair of the West Virginia University Board of Governors, provided the listeners of Positively WV with an update on how the university is managing this transition.

Alvarez is a distinguished and recognized owner, business leader and established serial entrepreneur who remains highly active in development, industry and community work.

Alvarez currently serves as Board Chairman of MVB Financial Corp. which includes:

• MVB Bank, Inc.
• MVB Mortgage
• MVB Community Development Corporation

Andy Kniceley, Publisher of WV News, manages a wide range of ancillary publications and websites, including:

• The Exponent Telegram
• The State Journal
• WV News
• Morgantown News, Blue & Gold News
• Fairmont News
• Bridgeport News
• Weston News
• Preston News & Journal
• Garrett Co. Republican
• NCWV Life magazine

Kniceley interviewed with Positively WV to discuss the COVID-19 impact on WV News and its surrounding communities. 

What's an intake form? Anna Carrier, Entrepreneur, and Community Business Program Lead at the Encova Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at West Virginia University can explain. As a Morgantown native, Carrier worked at a local law firm for two years while attending law school.

Carrier has also been a judge for the College of Business & Economics (B&E) Business Plan Competition since 2013 and currently teaches as an Adjunct Professor for the Management Department at B&E.

Find out what Carrier has to say about COVID-19 and intake forms for small businesses in the area.

"What did we have? What were we really not prepared for? We need to make assignments that way and prioritize in a different way than we ever have before," said Malene Davis, Chief Visionary Officer and Founding President of WV Caring in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Davis addresses COVID-19 and the opportunities ahead for not just the hospice field, but for all who are affected by the virus.

Davis is a national healthcare expert in the acute post field known for institutional financial and quality turnaround. With more than 30 years of leading and educating clinicians on the business of healthcare, WV Caring achieves outcomes of key quality metrics, purpose and profit. 

Discover how WV Caring is handling COVID-19 and what Davis feels is best for hospice care during this unfortunate time. 

From the COVID-19 impact on West Virginia, telemedicine, advice for going outdoors to how your local medical professionals are doing, David Goldberg, President and CEO of Mon Health, provides critical takeaways for the listeners of the Positively West Virginia Podcast.

Goldberg is a highly regarded leader in the healthcare sector. In West Virginia, some of Goldberg's responsibilities include: 

• Mon Health Medical Center, a 189-bed general, acute care hospital in Morgantown
• Mon Health Preston Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Kingwood
• Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Hospital, a 70-bed hospital in Weston

Learn more about Goldberg's take on COVID-19 below.

What’s a ventilator splitter (v-splitter), and how does it affect the COVID-19 pandemic? Ashok Aggarwal, co-founder and Managing Partner at M&S Consulting, decided to participate in designing a v-splitter to assist with patients who’ve contracted the virus. 

Aggarwal works with a fantastic team. Together, they built a world-class technology and strategy services organization that dedicates to customer satisfaction with a highly talented and dedicated group of enterprise consultants.

Over the past decade, consumer engagement and buying habits have shifted dramatically to digital mediums, and that trend will only continue in the coming years. However, many businesses still wonder if digital advertising is a useful tool for their marketing strategy. 

For many, it’s uncharted waters, and they aren’t sure where or how to begin utilizing digital marketing tools such as a website with a mobile-first design, digital and social media advertising and digital branded content.

While digital advertising and marketing may still be a new strategy for some, the current COVID-19 pandemic is forcing many businesses to adapt quickly to continue to serve and connect customers and generate revenue.

They say in the film world that you are only as good as your next script, and Hollywood A-list directors and actors tend to know a thing or two about screenwriting. You may be surprised to learn that many of their thoughts and ideas on scripting transcend seamlessly into the world of corporate marketing videos.  

Let’s take a look. 

As a key stakeholder in an addiction treatment program, you know that addiction treatment programs across the globe face a multitude of problems, including drawing in patients, having individuals within the community not wanting you to move in and ultimately, how to effectively reach the individuals who need you the most. 

As a marketing agency that has served many programs throughout the United States, we can tell you that addiction treatment marketing is NOT a one size fits all deal...

...AND it’s a long and arduous process. 

For the sake of this article, I’d like to focus on an intensive outpatient program (IOP) and men’s recovery community in Colorado. 

This IOP and men’s recovery community opened in July 2019 and was founded by two individuals who had a real passion for rural healthcare. The two founders and their team came to InnerAction Media (IAM). Together, we discussed their desire to develop a program that offered high-quality yet affordable treatment to their community.

Throughout the marketing process, IAM found a couple of obstacles that our client needed to overcome: the Colorado community believes that our client is part of a national franchise, the community had a “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) mentality and our clients found that they have a large volume of patient intake from healthcare referrals, rather than self-refers (stay tuned for why this is an issue for their content, folks). 

Learn how we worked to combat these issues with the influence of marketing. 

According to HubSpot, social media marketing is the act of creating content to promote your business and products on multiple social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram.

Anyone can post a picture on Instagram and get likes, right? Sure. But it takes the combination of creativity with strategy to develop an active social media marketing plan that drives the results you want for your business. 

People spend an average of three hours on social media per day; that includes 90.4 percent millennials, 77.5 percent Gen X and 48.2 percent Baby Boomers. 

That’s every single day; people are looking at, swiping past, or engaged in someone’s social media profile. There’s a lot of “noise” in the online world. You want to stand out. How do you get your audience to look at your social media messages and respond? With social media marketing, of course. 

Is it worth it? YES. Let me break that down for you:

• Y: YOU LIVE IN A DIGITAL DRIVEN WORLD

• E: EVOLVE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

• S: SALES GROWTH INCREASES

A website is an inevitability that every business must face. When building a website, you may not know where the first place to start is. That is why our team has outlined the four necessities for building a website below!

Let me ask you something - when you’re scrolling through social media, and you see a post, do you look at the image or words first? 

Graphics are simple, easy and fun to look at. When you’re scrolling through your social media, instead of looking at the blocky text, it’s a lot more visually appealing to see an image, meme or graphic.

In the healthcare industry, you want to build a means for your audience to connect with you and create an active community. You want to stand out as a trustworthy practice or organization that your patients can join. You also want to have your voice and persona shared online to gain a more significant following to turn into leads hopefully. 

Well, graphic design can help you with that. 

Ready to learn why graphics are an essential component of your healthcare practice? Continue reading below. 

Working within a niche industry as a dermatologist is challenging due to the common perception that skincare is a luxury. Since 2017, InnerAction Media (IAM) has worked with the Dermatology Center for Skin Health, PLLC, a dermatologic company located in Morgantown, West Virginia. Our team obtained the opportunity to provide new branding and help this dermatology practice increase new patient counts. 

Throughout the years, our team works to change the Dermatology Center for Skin Health, PLLC continuously marketing strategy, to always stay top-of-mind with their customers and potential customers. Continue below to read more about IAM’s Inbound Marketing process. 

A few days ago, a good friend asked me what book I was currently reading. Embarrassed, I admitted that I had been recently hyper-focusing on my business and hadn’t read any books in the past couple of months.

It’s funny because I know that reading and lifelong learning are habits that most of the world’s most successful business leaders engage in.

For instance, did you know Warren Buffet reads 500 pages a day? Mark Cuban reads about three hours a day. Bill Gates, one of the most wealthy people in the world, reads 50 books a year.

I left that meeting and immediately purchased Simon Sinek’s latest release: The Infinite Game. It was published just the day before.

I want to share some of my thoughts on this new leadership work by the man who brought us Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last. 

InnerAction Media (IAM) President and Founder, Jim Matuga, published his book, Marketing Matters: Your Guide to Getting More Customers and Increasing Revenue, in January.

This 27 chapter book takes business owners step-by-step through developing a marketing strategy, and teaches them how to implement it.

Now more than ever, I love commercials – in particular, commercials that tell a story.  I’m that person that puts down their phone to watch the commercial in between the big game or TV show.  Telling a really good story in 30 to 60 seconds is an art, and I admire the creatives who do it so well.

As a video producer of TV commercials and web videos, I find inspiration in those commercials that I love. I think about what has touched me, what has made me laugh, cry or inspired me and try to incorporate those elements into our commercial and video productions at InnerAction Media.

In the last few years, we have seen some really great TV and Internet advertising campaigns, and I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites and what I believe makes them effective:

• Subaru "Life Story on the Line"
• HP "Little Moments"
• Extra Gum "The Story of Sarah and Juan"

Not convinced storytelling is a good approach for marketing your business? Check out this excerpt from Donald Miller’s Story Brand:

“In every line of copy we write, we’re either serving the customer’s story or descending into confusion; we’re either making music or making noise.”

In today’s market, you are either telling a story that draws your customer in, or you are adding to the confusion. So how do you tell an effective story in your marketing efforts? Here are four tips to get you started.

Your website is so important in today’s digital-first era. Today’s buyer is going to check out your company’s online presence. They want to educate themselves on your products/solutions through your content, blogs, eBooks and videos.

Keywords. Those are what you previously based your web pages around. Long tail, descriptive keywords that summed up what you wanted users to find you by when using Google.

Today, that has changed. Keywords are still important, but they are evolving to adapt to ever changing search engines.

SEO is now switching to a topic cluster model. A single “pillar” page acts as the main hub of content for an overarching topic. Then, many content pages that are related to that same topic link back to the pillar page and to each other.

This linking action signals to search engines that the pillar page is an authority on the topic. Over time, the page may rank higher. The topic cluster model is a way of organizing a site’s content pages using a cleaner and more deliberate site architecture.

Keep reading to learn more about topics clusters.

TV advertising should be considered an integral part of an overall video marketing strategy. With hundreds of TV channels now available, TV advertising is ubiquitous. 

However, TV commercials are, by design, short and sweet. Employing a TV commercial as part of a larger video marketing strategy will exponentially increase the distribution of your message about your product or service.

With everything being on the Internet, it’s easy to see why everyone would want to stay away from a more traditional marketing strategy such as print; however, I recently participated in the West Virginia University (WVU) CreateAthon where my team developed a mostly print campaign for a local non profit organization.

Read on to learn why.

Whether a company specializes in a long-term or one-off product, customer retention is a priority.

Perhaps you've invested millions of dollars and a lot of time to create a product. You don't want all that effort to get wasted. Customers are a valuable business asset that adds value in the form of repeat purchases or referrals. However, many brands often fail when it comes to devising ways to retain customers especially if they sell one-off products.

Many companies think that a customer call center is enough to increase retention. Often, people contact customer support when they want to inquire about a product. Just because customers feel satisfied with a product doesn't mean you've retained them. The marketing team isn't enough to keep loyal clients.

Here are a few marketing techniques to earn more profit and increase customer retention.

To many, social media marketing can be like walking into a black hole when it comes to researching what to do and what not to do.

We understand this. That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive list of what to do and what not to do when it comes to marketing your business on social media.

They say in the film world that you are only as good as your next script, and Hollywood A-list directors tend to know a thing or two about screenwriting. You may be surprised to learn that many of their thoughts and ideas on scripting transcend seamlessly into the world of corporate video production.

Seriously, just read the quotes.

The time lapse is a perfect medium to showcase beauty and action. Like many forms of video, the time lapse uses captivating imagery and movement to compel viewers. Unlike many forms of video, the time lapse offers a unique perspective that is unfamiliar yet appealing to viewers.

When you think of a traditional time lapse, fast paced images of skyscraper construction, starlit desert night skies and tree-engulfed rambling brooks come to mind. It is easy for us to recall the most beautiful natural or man made scenes when we think of the time lapse.

Continue on to learn more about time lapse and how it can work for your business. 

We get a lot of questions about keywords. Questions including if keywords are still relevant, why did Hubspot get rid of the keyword function tab and many more.

We’re here to answer these questions and to explain a few things.

No one can dispute that video plays a significant and growing role in marketing today. The digital revolution has opened the door to video across all mediums; it is certainly not limited to television anymore. Despite this growing trend, the video production process is often times misunderstood.

To better understand what goes into and what goes on behind the scenes of a typical marketing video, I have listed below a few of the common misconceptions of video production that I have encountered in my years as a TV/Video Producer.

Developing a marketing strategy for a non-profit organization varies greatly from the standard business marketing plan.  

Creating and maintaining a plan may seem daunting, but never fear, we’re here to help develop an effective strategy for non-profit organizations.

When marketing, it’s crucial that you be true to yourself. Define your mission, and do not lose sight of it. Be honest, and make realistic promises that you can and will deliver on. This will help you gain an advantage over those who aren’t true and use marketing for the sole purpose of sales, regardless of the information they’re providing.

Get the most out of your non-profit marketing efforts by developing a well thought out, organized and strategic marketing plan.

Read on to learn some key steps to help get you started!

There are so many reasons why you should consider using video in your real estate business. Other than all of the eye popping statistics about how much video people are watching online per day, I can offer you this information from some research and my own personal experience.

Read on to learn more.

Jennifer Livingston for InnerAction Media

Marketing campaigns are an excellent method of drumming up support for a new or established business. However, the amount of thought, strategy and decision making you put into the marketing strategies directly influences the effectiveness of your campaign. You will make mistakes when deciding on the best strategies to move forward in promoting and marketing your business; however, you don’t need to always take shots in the dark. By incorporating these must-have campaign elements in a campaign, you will see your campaigns grow into fruition.

Read on for five marketing elements you must have for a successful marketing campaign.

Working in TV and video production is a great gig if you are fortunate enough to find it. I have been lucky enough to work as a video/TV producer for both large and small video production companies, in addition to running my own video production business for more than 15 years.

Recently, I was hired as a video producer at InnerAction Media, a digital marketing firm based in Morgantown, WV. And, although video production is just a portion of InnerAction’s business - it is becoming a much larger area of business. With more and more people realizing the response and results that come with a great video, the number of people looking to incorporate videos into their overall marketing campaigns has grown significantly over the last couple of years.  

Beyond creative, there are lots of logistics that go into even the shortest of productions. You might have a great concept in mind, but in most cases, you’ll need the expertise of a video producer to help bring those concepts to life. iPhone videos don't cut it on a commercial level, except for Apple (and its billions in resources). Depending on what you are looking for, there are benefits and drawbacks to working with large and small production companies and companies that provide more than just video production.

The ways of achieving high quality photos and videos are becoming a thing of the past. Over the last year or so, the buzz has been all about drones--and for good reason. Used for a multitude of reasons, drones are becoming the wave of the future, and if you don’t get on board now, you may just get left behind.

Read on for 5 pros of utilizing drone footage for your West Virginia business.

How many billboards do you see on your drive to work? What about driving from your office to the grocery store, or to pick up the kids from school?

The 2016 Neilsen Out-of-Home Advertising Study found that nearly half of U.S. residents age 16 or older (of those surveyed) travel in a vehicle for two hours or more on an average weekday. And they are paying attention to billboards while they’re driving or riding in a car.

80% of U.S. adults age 16 or older (of those surveyed) noticed a billboard in the past month, with 62% noticing a billboard in the past week. Fewer survey participants noticed a digital billboard — only 59%; however, only an estimated 1.7% of all billboards are digital.

Perhaps your company already utilizes billboards — or maybe you’ve been considering the investment for a while. Do billboards work better for certain industries? Should your business use billboards?

Read on to learn more.

For a business that is new to video marketing, working with a video production company might seem intimidating.

• What should you expect?
• What should you be prepared for?
• What kind of questions should you ask?

Fortunately, if you enter the relationship with the right expectations, video marketing can be a fun, fruitful experience.

Here are 5 key things to consider when hiring a video production company. 

The active free market is one of the most unpredictable aspects of our society…well, sometimes the weather may be a very close second.

Over the last 15 years of business, we’ve seen a huge shift in how we strategically market our small businesses. There were the days when we bought a monthly subscription to the local radio station to play a 30-second spot on the most popular hit station or bought a full page ad in the local newspaper and expected a parade of customers to call by next Tuesday.

The world is not like that anymore.

What is Digital Advertising? Digital Advertising, also called internet marketing, is when businesses like yours leverage internet technologies to deliver promotional advertisements to consumers. It includes promotional advertisements and messages delivered through:

• Email
• Social Media
• Online Advertising on: Search engines & banner ads

There are many different types of digital advertising. In this blog, we will discuss five:

1. Geofencing
2. Retargeting
3. Keyword/Search Targeting
4. Behavioral Targeting
5. IP Targeting

Digital advertising will drive traffic to your website, increase leads and generate more patients.

Let’s dive in!

When we are in the beginning stages of creation for a new client or a new video, we map the entire video, audio and certain graphic placements. All three of these elements are a key part in producing an effective film. However, the one element that doesn't get much credit, as it should, is the motion graphic/animated work that gets placed within the video.

For those that are inside the industry, it can be easy to understand what we are talking about. But if you just arrived here or are starting in the motion graphics world, you probably may have asked yourself: What does motion graphics really mean? Especially when you see it referenced in different ways like "animation."

When was the last time you saw a video advertisement?

The marketing tool that used to be chained to network television, trapped in a 30 second box, which could only be unlocked with a $50,000-marketing-budget shaped key, is now free. Free to roam the various platforms consumers are consuming. We now see video ads on our news articles, video ads on our Twitter feeds, and video ads on our video ads. Today, law firms are leveraging video marketing more than ever. But traditionally, calculating ROI for video has been very difficult. So, what are the benefits of video marketing for lawyers?

Business owners, brand managers, marketing directors and creatives — this one’s for you. When was the last time the word compliance was heard in your office? Probably not recently…if ever.

We often get so caught up in the creative aspects of our marketing and advertising jobs that we fail to consider the legal implications of the claims, disclosures and transparency of our copy. Marketing compliance is a big deal — it protects consumers from being tricked, misled or lied to by a business. Compliance laws also limit the information that companies can ask consumers for, regulate communications between consumers and businesses and protect consumer privacy.

In this blog, we assess the best practices for compliance in marketing, share how your marketing team can follow compliance guidelines and how you can avoid compliance issues.

When you think about end-of-the-month marketing reports, you probably groan. It’s a lot of time spent sitting at a computer, looking at numbers and trying to make sense of those numbers.

For a lot of people who aren’t crazy about analyzing numbers, it’s can seem like a daunting process; however, it’s a simple process, and it’ll only take you about two hours to create.

Why is a report important for your business, and what data should be put into it?

Color theory, the guiding principles for selecting colors that work in harmony, the message that colors communicate, why colors clash and how we perceive color — is incredibly complex.

Color is closely tied to memory and first impressions. For example, when you walk down the isle at the grocery store looking for a particular brand of cereal, you know the primary color on the box. Using color alone, you’re able to narrow the selection and find the brand and variety you want. It’s also crucial in creating the right first impression — research suggests that one of the main deciding factors in whether somebody likes or dislikes a new product is color.

Think about children and food. In the US, many foods marketed toward children have added colors. If a fruit candy was all white or beige, would children find it as appealing? Probably not. Color helps shape the perception of the product as “tasty” and “fun." Just like color can shape the perception of your business and office location.

Read on to learn how color affects the perception of your healthcare business — from your logo and website to the paint on the office walls.

Music is essential for good advertising. No, I’ll take that a step further: For most people, music is an essential part of life. 

For those of you who know me, this position probably doesn’t surprise you. I am—by my own admission—obsessed with music. I play almost a dozen instruments (some of them better than others), have written songs for recording artists, and fronted my own bands since I was 14 years old. A few of my songs have gotten radio play, charted on Billboard, and been featured on TV shows—they weren’t popular enough for me to retire from the royalties, but they were popular enough to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. 

It’s not just my own music I’m obsessed with, either; my music collection is huge and diverse. I love country, pop, rock, americana, classical, jazz, blues, hip-hop, and just about anything you throw at me. I’m not here to gloat about my hipster-envy-inducing vinyl collection…I actually have a larger point. I just want to agree that it’s fair to say that I know a thing or two about this particular subject. Can we agree on this? Ok, let’s move on to the good stuff then!

Written by Megan Fox | megan@inneractionmedia.com

Picture this: you’ve just landed in Oz and are stumbling along the yellow brick road. You’ve come to a fork in the road and must choose to go right or left. Which path will you choose? One way leads to a dark forest where there seems to be something on all fours lurking in the distance, and the other way is lined with ripe apple trees. Your choice seems pretty simple, right? 

I know this may be a far stretch — but when it comes to marketing your business, a lot of business owners want to take the easy way out. They’ll build their own website, maybe write a blog every other month, shoot a video with their IPhone, build a Facebook page they update occasionally and rely heavily on newspaper ads and billboards.

What they don’t realize is that although taking the less traveled road may seem daunting, what lies at the end of that path is ten times greater than what is in store for them at the end of the more easily navigable path. 

If Dorothy would have given up at her first crossroad when she met the Scarecrow, sure she may not have had apples thrown at her, a lion attack her, monkeys carry her away or been locked away in the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle, but she never would have met her greatest companions or made it back to her family in Kansas. 

Shortcuts should not be taken when you are marketing your business. You need to invest the proper time and energy into your tactics so you can become the thought leader in your industry.

Follow our content development process (our yellow brick road per say) that will generate your business more leads and convert more paying customers…just watch out for the witch's fireballs along the way! 

Written by Jim Sweezy | jimsweezy@inneractionmedia.com

It’s the elephant inside the room. You have become abundantly aware that there is an ever-evolving way of marketing out there – it's all around you. But you're far too busy with the day-to-day responsibilities of running your business to stop and address it. Still, the elephant isn’t budging.

First of all, what do we mean by digital marketing? Digital marketing is an inclusive term for all of your company's online marketing – from your website itself to your online branding assets, social media channels, digital advertising, email marketing, online brochures and beyond. The act of identifying and utilizing which specific tactics and assets will yield the best results for your situation is the strategy. 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs & Marketing: Using psychology to succeed in advertising, marketing and sales.

There is a huge psychological component to marketing, advertising and sales. In fact, I’d argue that the majority of what we do is psychology-based. After all, what is marketing other than trying to motivate a person to make a decision to do something you want them to do?

AUTHOR’S NOTE: So let me first say that the title of this article isn’t meant to be condescending or demeaning in any way. My dog is an exceptional marketer. Just check out his Facebook page.

Aside from being my best friend and sometimes roommate, Caboose Arbogast is the chief security officer here at InnerAction Media, and he does a great job. He is dedicated, vigilant and an excellent judge of character. But he’s more than that; he’s a great resource to bounce marketing ideas off of.

Caboose has had some poignant insights over the past few months about how marketing to people is a lot like working with dogs, and I’d like to share a few of them with you here. Ready? Here we go!

Is Your Business Using a 10 Inch Frying Pan?

Jim Matuga, Co-Founder and CEO

In your business, do you have an increase mindset?  Or do you think with an acceptance point-of-view?

That’s what I’d like to talk with you today about.

Does Your Video Have a Purpose?

In the world of video marketing there is no such thing as art. This is something I learned hard and fast as a young, charismatic, recently graduated film student. I grabbed my diploma, my coffee pot and all the clothes I could stuff into my hamper and left the pseudo-reality we call higher education to begin my journey in the real world. I was ready to work for an honest to goodness marketing agency, where people would pay me for my Scorsese-esque films full of beautiful imagery and jaw-dropping cinematography. The only problem: I was living in a fantasy world.

Are you living up to your creative potential? Do you have your imagination on a leash? Creativity is more important now than ever, and is only going to get more valuable as time goes on and technology grows. It’s the way of living that embraces originality and makes connections in your own unique way.

As a former General Manager of an NBC affiliate TV station, I must confess:  I do not watch a lot of TV these days.

That said, On Monday evening as I was flipping through the cable channels at home, my thoughts drifted to marvelling at the sheer amount of different programming options available today.  With sattelite TV, cable, NetFlix, iTunes, DVDs, etc, I wondered - what others are watching today.  

So, I asked.  On Facebook.  I recieved almost 100 comments to my question:  "Quick poll: What is your favorite TV show?"

Last week while meeting with a potential new client in Ohio, the VP of Marketing (35 years in the business) said something that has resonated with me the past several days:

"One of our organization's Core Values is stewardship.  But the reality is I break that core value every day when I purchase newspaper advertising.  I hate it.  When I think about people pulling extra shifts, and all of the hard working people who make our organization great...  The fact is I'm taking that capital and our money and wasting it on newspaper advertising.  It makes me sick."

As a long-time media guy, I hear it every day.  Traditional media just does not perform like it used to.  It's not coming back folks.